Shamrocks

I made these shamrocks for St. Patty's Day. Sometimes this fun holiday gets overlooked since it is squeezed between Valentines day and Easter. But it is still fun. I found these wooden shamrocks at The Wood Connection Craft store in Murray. They have lots of fun wood projects.

First I had to sand the wood and I gave the edges a roundish edge, but still a little bit square.


The large shamrock is painted the lightest color... I took the Fresh Foliage and added white to it to create a lighter color. Then let the first coat dry. After applying the second coat, while the paint was still wet I sprinkled a green glitter on the paint and let it dry. Then I floated the edge with a darker color paint. Finally the glitter seemed too thick so I sanded it down a bit and a little on the edge too to soften the floated edge. Same process for each shamrock, with different paint colors.

The medium shamrock is painted the darkest color. I took the Old Ivy paint color and added the darkest woodland green to it to give it a darker tint. On the second coat I added the glitter, just as before, and floated the edge with the lightest color that was put on the large shamrock.

For the smallest shamrock, I painted it with the Fresh Foliage, but darkened it a bit with the Old Ivy. Added the glitter, the floated edge... and they were done!

These small shamrocks I just painted with two coats of Fresh Foliage, applied the glitter while wet and then didn't sand them. So they ended up with a thicker coat of glitter, plus I painted and put glitter on both sides.

Here are the paints that I used. Apple Barrel White and Apple Barrel Woodland Green, FolkArt Old Ivy and Fresh Foliage. I used these four colors and created colors that all matched.

Recipe Board

Here is another cute gift that was made for Christmas. It is a recipe board made from a wood base and a metal board. The metal is obviously magnetic so I made the chef magnet and an additional rock magnet to hold the recipe card on the board.







Here is my little chef. I stamped him from Stampin' Up's Voila stamp set. Colored him in and then went to Kinko's where I had him laminated. If he is going to be in the kitchen he is going to have to be waterproof, it gets messy in the kitchen, don't cha know. Then after he was laminated I added some black brad buttons to his chef coat. It gave the flat chef some dimension and a little bit of personality.





On the metal board I used my black StazOn Pad and stamped Bon Appetit on the top corner of the metal board.

I painted the wood block with a cream colored acrylic paint. But I didn't want the block to be a totally solid color. I thought it would look good if the grain of the wood showed through so I decided to add some water to the paint and it just white washed the wood. The saying is made out of vinyl and I had a variety of sayings that I put on the blocks ranging from "The Cook Is In" to "Bon Appetit" to "Live Laugh Love" (which can be used as a recipe board or as a photo board).

This is the action shot. The board being used. The recipe that is on there is one that I got from a Bridal shower and it is yummy! Look at that only 5 ingredients.

Sweet Sweet Chilli

1 pound cubed stew meat

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 can chilli beans, undrained

1 can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano, undrained

less than 1/2 cup of brown sugar

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook for 6-8 hours on low or on high for 3-4 hours. (Works well doubled.)

I like this recipe, but I added some diced onions as well and it worked out nicely. Yummy! A great quick recipe that is a twist on the classic type of chilli.

Piggy Banks

My husband needed to give out a gift to co-workers and his employees at work. This year we gave out piggy banks. The banks had no character when we bought them, so I took Porcelaine Permanent Paint and gave the pigs, eyes, eyelashes (female) or eyebrows (male), and a personalized name on their butt.

Then we wrapped them up with cellophane and a bow and they were ready to go.



I made a few others that were given to a niece and nephew. They got dolled up a bit more with blue polka dots and red swirly dots in addition to the eyes and names. The paint is wonderful and comes in a wide variety of colors, available at Michael's Craft Store. Once it is applied you let it dry for 24 hours and bake it in the oven. After it has baked in the oven, it is microwave and dishwasher safe. Not so important when it is on a piggy bank, but great when you put it on a ceramic dish of some sort.

Another cool thing that I learned... I have had this paint for several years and one small bottle goes a looooong way. It hasn't run out and it hasn't gone bad either. But this year, when I went to go buy some other colors I discovered that the paint was available in pen form. It was great for writing the names on the back of the pigs, and even for drawing in some of the eyes. I made the eyes a variety of colors so they each had their own personality.